Beneath the Black Veil
by Antoinette de Vanellet
Summary: Pre-OoTP. Sirius Black has been trapped within the Black Manor for over a month, Buckbeak as well, and they are bored out of their minds. Will their emotions change once the Order joins him?
1. A Simple Nap

Yo yo yo...Yes, I'm here with the first chapter. Honestly, I spent like two hours on it and that's it...But I like it. I hope you do too! -sappy sap sap- I had the hardest time actually naming this fic...-sigh-  
  
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His eyes averted at the window in the dusty study. The air was warm, yet the wind carried a soft coolness with it. 'A perfect day for a message,' he thought to himself. 'But it is Wednesday. He might just be...Busy. Yes, busy. I bet that's it.'  
  
Sirius Black stood from the armchair, his arms instantly stretching. It became automatic these days. The boredom took completely controlled his mind this summer. His godson, Harry Potter, was with Vernon and Petunia Dursley, as well as the other fat pig by the name of Dudley. Sirius had finally decided that Harry was obviously having fun with his aunt and uncle at their nice suburbian home. Otherwise, he was quite positive that Harry would have stayed with him. Little did he know, the Boy Who Lived wasn't..Well, living, as some may put it. Harry was, unpurposely, wasting perfectly valuable time that he could have happily spent with his godfather.  
  
Sirius turned to stare through the window once more, as if an owl was going to sweep into the room at any moment. That's why he left it open. He didn't care about the constant blasting music from his Muggle neighbors. How would they know he could hear it, anyway? They couldn't even seen his house, the poor sods. He took a step out of the study door and slowly made his way up the creaking hallway. The heads of house-elves lined the walls, making it hard to even walk near them. Sirius felt as though they were constantly glaring his way down their snout-like noses. He tried several times to remove them completely from the household, but a permanent sticking charm had been used on the back of each one.  
  
He arrived at the end of the hallway, glad to finally pass those awful cretons plastered to the walls, and turned the doorknob in front of him. As he stepped inside the gaping room, Buckbeak the hippogriff's eyes brightened at the sight of Sirius. The winged creature took a step toward his master and nuzzled his shoulder lovingly. Sirius knew Buckbeak was fed up with this house as well, the two locked in it with only eachother. But soon Dumbledore, along with several other Hogwarts professors would be there that he remembered from years ago. The Order of the Phoenix, they called themselves. The group apparently was trying to follow Voldemort, aka He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and his sudden disappearance. It was as though Voldie had suddenly vanished into thin air without so much as a cup of tea or a wave goodbye. Sirius patted Buckbeak on his vicious-looking silver beak gently.  
  
"They're bound to be here soon. Don't worry," Sirius reminded his feathery friend. And with that, the man sat upon a loveseat near the wall and drifted to sleep.  
  
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	2. Lemon Drops and Portraits

Oh my GOD! I completely forgot about this story. x.x I wandered upon ff.net once more and discovered the first chapter...By itself. Then I remembered I had written most of chapter 2, but I couldn't figure out how to make entrances. Well, I just figured out how. o.o So. Have a nice read.

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"FILTHY RODENTS, SCUM, MUDBLOODS, YOU DISGUST ME! HOW DARE YOU ENTER THE HOUSE OF BLACK!"

Sirius awoke in a snap and sat straight upon the loveseat. Screams bellowed from the first floor of the huge empty house. It sounded as though someone had wounded a rabid baboon, and the animal was shrieking in pain. He rose from the sofa and rubbed his forehead. He knew those screams; they were awfully familiar. Though, he had not heard them in the longest time. Suddenly, he knew exactly where they were coming from.

"COCKROACHES, SPIDERS OF DEATH! CURSE YOU! FILTHY..."

"Oh, yes. Nice one mum...Spiders of death. I think I'll die from fright. Old hag." Sirius was heading down the staircase toward the deafening screams. He turned a corner and faced a pair of old, beady eyes. They were glaring, filled with rage and hate. He glared right back at them. A life-sized portrait of a woman was hanging right in front of him, surrounded by ragged curtains on either side. It was of his mother. "Shut up already!" he yelled at the painting.

Then he heard a sound. A doorbell, perhaps? As soon as he had heard it, he knew what had caused the portrait of his mother to wake up. Then, the front door opened, and in stepped Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Hello? Mister Black, are you there?" Dumbledore started. He had his usual semi-quiet tone, but somehow it had risen above the shouts of Sirius' mum.

"Right...Right here, Professor," Sirius said, wondering how the man could have risen his voice like that.

"There you are. Please, call me Albus," Dumbledore said with a small grin upon his face. He turned and faced the screaming portrait. "Mrs. Black, please!" He pointed his wand at her and mumbled a spell, and the woman suddenly became silent. The curtains wrapped themselves around the portrait once more.

"Ah, Sirius. How are you?" Dumbledore asked. "The others should be here soon. Minerva should be arriving soon. Her muggle coat has been acting up lately. She put a cleansing charm on it, and now it will not stop squeaking! Imagine that..."

Sirius chuckled lightly. His eyes seemed less tired and dull. Ever since Dumbledore had arrived, they were full of life and held his old charm.

Tug.

Sirius didn't look down.

Tug.

Still no luck.

Tug.

He kept on at it. 'Ignoring is the key,' Sirius thought, though he was struggling with it.

Tug, yet this time more furiously.

"What do you want, Kreacher?" Sirius finally said. He glanced down upon a house elf with floppy ears and a pointy nose. There were wrinkles all along his body. Dumbledore was oblivious to all of this, as he was wandering by the walls of the entrance hallway. He seemed totally dumbfounded by the old portraits.

"Kreacher feels that his Mistress would not like strangers entering her abode," the house elf said in response to Sirius's question. The creature's eyes looked somewhat aggressive, but Sirius didn't care. Sirius shooed Kreacher out of the room, the elf currently muttering nasty comments.

Dumbledore tapped Sirius firmly on the shoulder.

"WHAT, KRE--Oh, my apologies, Du..Albus," Sirius said as he turned around. He had thought Kreacher was back for more and had somehow floated to his shoulder to annoy him further.

"Your, ahem, portraits were crooked. But now they're fixed..." Dumbledore smiled softly. He was still sleepy, seeing as he didn't have time for his daily goblet of nice, steamy, chocolatey, warm, soothing, beautiful hot chocolate.

The two men began walking along the hallway quietly, as they did not wish to wake the woman in the painting again. Just as they were about to enter the kitchen below, the entrance door opened. In stepped a very large man, about twice as big as any man and at least four times as round.

"Hagrid, how nice it is to see you. Come in, come in," welcomed Dumbledore. He talked as though he was the one living in the dreadful, yet fascinating house.

Meanwhile, Sirius was standing in the doorway of the kitchen praising the ceiling above that Hagrid hadn't pressed the doorbell. The memory of the tune that the bell played glued itself into his mind.

'Ding..dooooooooooooong...Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo!' And now, it was going to be stuck there forever...Sigh.

"Oh, Hagrid! We were just about discuss the meeting over tea before the others arrived. Will you join us?" Sirius had finally snapped awake from his daydream.

Hagrid shuffled his way into the house and followed the two men into the kitchen below.

"Yeh, I'd love that, thanks," Hagrid said in his deep and severely ungrammatical ways. He wriggled his left foot in an odd way, looking like he was attempting to throw something off it.

As the three neared the table in the kitchen, Sirius approached Hagrid and leaned sideways toward his ear.

"Thanks for not ringing the doorbell," he whispered.

Dumbledore and Hagrid sat at the long table in the middle of the room, while Sirius had his go at fixing tea. He sat the cups onto the table, each one on its own little saucer bearing the Black family crest. Sirius cringed at the sight. He meant to throw those out earlier.

"Pesky litt'e bugger," groaned Hagrid, shaking his leg once more. Dumbledore glanced at him through his spectacles. Hagrid leaned forward and grabbed at his ankle. A hiss-fest started under the table, as though Hermione Granger's pet cat Crookshanks had gotten on the loose. "Gotcha.

"This here thing 'as been buggin' meh all mornin'," Hagrid complained as he revealed a cat with brown spotted fur and quite enormous ears. Its lion-like tail swished in every possible direction. "Kneazle, is what it is. Had ter get it off meh once earlier, but it kep' followin' meh. Finally latched onto meh," he explained. He stroked the feline on the head with large, sausage-like fingers, and it started to instantly pur.

"I'n it cute, eh, Sirius?"

"Irresistable," he grunted, while staring continuously at the family crest. There was a short pause. "...Planning to keep it?"

"Well, I dunno. Can' keep it 'ere, I know. Guess I could keep i' near meh home. Tha' should be best, yeh." Hagrid said with a sad tone. He was known for his soft spot toward wild animals. He sipped at his tea, crunching the handle. He sat it down on the table, hoping that the others wouldn't notice.

Dumbledore pulled a lemon drop from within his coat and plopped it into his mouth. He looked particularly pleased. Sirius turned in the chair to face the doorway and cupped his ear to listen. Footsteps sounded from the entrance hallway. It seemed like more than one person.

"Oh thank God they didn't ring the doorbell."

Four pairs of legs rounded the corner; two stopped at the doorway. The others kept a quick pace and charged for the table. Tonks and Lupin simultaneously removed two chairs and sat down into extremely relaxed positions. McGonagall and Snape stayed at the doorway; McGonagall looked surprisingly content, whereas Snape looked....Unsurprisingly dull.

"Ah, hello! Minerva, Severus, why don't you sit down? Come, come." Dumbledore smiled softly, waving his hand at a row of chairs still available at the table. "Well. Once the others are here, we will be able to begin our meeting, finally."

Snape stared at him. "What meeting?"

Lupin raised a brow and shook his head, placing his unshaven chin onto a loosely balled fist. Tonks sighed loudly, and Sirius, his chair leaned backwards onto the last two legs and feet upon the table, fell onto the floor.


End file.
